Not all people come to theatre to watch the film, says the trailer, even as the director shows the audience doing their own thing — some eating, some engaged in animated conversation, a couple in a corner sharing intimate moments and another capturing the film on his mobile phone. A sudden shriek and blood splattered on a seat indicates it is a crime thriller. The film is titled Showtime and the director Siva Sree Kanchi jocularly remarks that it heralds his debut.
Throwing light on the promotion material, he says, “To bring audience to the theatre we need gimmicks and it needs to be attention grabbing; we have to present it without revealing the content, sustaining interest till it strikes the theatre. After coming to the theatre, the person should not feel that he is being cheated by the publicity material.” He concurs with his cousin Rajamouli’s thought that people should know what the film is about, if not everything, before going to see it. Viewers should not be shocked, they should be prepared. “It is like tasting flavours of ice cream before ordering your scoop in an ice-cream parlour,” he points out.
S.S Kanchi’s debut as a director has been long in coming. He not only directed Amrutham tele series, but had also written, directed and acted in it. He was an assistant writer in Rajamouli’s story department for his films, from Sye to Magadheera. He finally got a break with Maryada Ramanna for which he gave the story and dialogues. He contributed to Eega as well. His film career began as an assistant director to K Raghavendra Rao.
Then he had a brief stint in production. He avers, “It was our own production, my dad and uncle directed it and to recover the money did a lot work. I always believe that a producer should trust you and have implicit faith in your subject, and then the rest will follow. I can’t run behind producers and heroes. Sudheer, the producer of Yemo Gurram Egaravocchu evinced keen interest in this project and after he assured me that he is in the right frame of mind to execute the project, I stepped in.”
Randheer and Rukhsar Mir play the leads in Showtime which has been shot in Hyderabad. The crime thriller runs for about two hours. Kanchi observes that patience levels of audience are receding.
“We presume that people can watch an extra two minutes beyond two hours but they don’t. I am going to focus on direction henceforth. It is not easy to say that I enjoyed the shoot. It is a huge responsibility. Also as this is not a luxuriously budgeted film, I need to pay heed to everything. My mind is occupied with economic viability. So it is definitely a strain,” he signs off.
